Trump under siege again after telling soldier's widow "he knew what he signed up for"
The White House has failed to deny that President Trump told the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson that the fallen soldier “knew what he signed up for”.
Instead, it moved to accuse the Florida congresswoman who brought it to America’s attention of politicising the exchange.
“I think it is appalling what the congresswoman has done and the way that she has politicised this issue,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Wednesday afternoon.
“This was a president who loves our country very much, who has the greatest level of respect for men and women in uniform and wanted to call and offer condolences to the family,” she continued.
“And I think that to try and create something from that like the congresswoman is doing is frankly appalling and disgusting.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Trump spoke on the phone with Johnson’s pregnant widow, Myeshia Johnson, 25, and the families of the three other Green Berets killed in an ambush in Niger on October 4.
According to Democrat Senator Frederica Wilson, who was with Johnson at the time of the call, Trump spoke “sarcastically” when he said the 25-year-old soldier “knew what he signed up for.”
“How insensitive can you be?” Wilson told reporters.
“And he said it more than once. I said this man has no feelings for anyone. This is a young woman with child who is grieved to her soul.”
Johnson’s mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, told the Washington Post that Wilson’s account was accurate.
“President Trump did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband,” Jones-Johnson said.
Early Wednesday, Trump disputed Wilson’s account, claiming he had “proof”.
“Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof),” Trump tweeted.
Sanders was asked what “proof” Trump had and whether there were recordings of the conversation.
“No, but there were several people in the room from the administration that were on the call, including the chief of staff, John Kelly,” Sanders said.
“The president’s call, as recounted by multiple people in the room, believe that the president was completely respectful, very sympathetic and expressed the condolences of himself and the rest of the country. I don’t know how you can take that any other way.”
Trump’s response to the soldiers’ deaths has come under intense scrutiny this week following a Rose Garden press conference in which the president falsely claimed that former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush did not call families of fallen soldiers.
“If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls,” Trump said. “I like to call when it’s appropriate, when I think I’m able to do it.”
